 "The international wave in school education")
While these are more the exceptions, I even know some parents - a very affluent lot of course - who have sent their children to study overseas in school. Typically, these are to schools in London, but perhaps the most popular is United World College (UWC) in Singapore. In almost any grade, a third of the children studying in UWC are Indian today and these are not all children whose parents live in Singapore. Many are in boarding while parents live and work in India. This is again something that was practically unthinkable in our time; few would ever think of it; most simply could not afford it.
Why is this happening ? One, parents are no longer content with the Indian system of rote where thinking is not encouraged. Look carefully at the text books under the CBSE and ICSE syllabi and you will know what I mean. Children are expected to memorise and reproduce dates, names, absurd details - that today can simply be obtained on Google if and when the need arises. What for instance is the point of memorising a series of dates of various ruling empires in the 14th or 15th century ? Who needs to know what dates Akbar ruled ? Or the scientific names of various species of animals ? An alarming lot of trivia needs to be memorised and it's not clear to what avail. Parents want their children to end up with more than just a mark sheet.
A second reason for the beeline for international schools is the absurdly high cut-offs in Indian colleges. Most colleges and institutions that people want to send their children to have very few seats to offer and competition is too intense. Faced with this, many children leave the country to go overseas for further studies post their Class XII. So many argue that they may as well put them into an international system and curriculum from an earlier age itself. They will get used to the system that is quite different from the Indian one.
Why this has also become possible is the growing affluence one sees in the larger cities and in smaller towns. A lot more people can afford to do this today than in our time. Not only can people afford it, there are a host of international schools - something pretty much unheard of in our time. Now, no matter which corner one looks in, there is an international school available - much like the MBA and engineering institutes that have sprung up all over the country.
There is also a set of parents who withdraw their children from regular Indian boards because they find that their children are not performing. This to my mind is probably not the right reason, because children who are not performing in one system will usually not perform in the other either. There may well be other reasons why the child is not doing well. Just changing the system or board may not fix it.
Two things strike me as important here. One, parents who do decide to move into the international system should do it early. A lot of people I know are doing it in middle school (typically in classes VIII and XI when the pressure builds up) and that, to my mind, is quite late. The IGCSE, IB and other systems are no easier; they are just different. So, the earlier the better the child can cope.
And second, parents need to be aware that not all schools claiming to be affiliated to these international boards can offer quality. Quality of teachers (this needs a separate column) is often poor as are teaching methods. Just as the system is new for the children, it is also new for the teachers. And as with engineering and MBA institutes in India, regulation in this area too is very lax. A lot of international schools are just money-making rackets. They charge like the established international schools but fail to deliver quality. You need to make sure you are being charged for what you are being promised.